Tag: nature

Counting on … day 88

9th September 2026

Green spaces are clearly important for mental health as well as for encouraging physical activity and well being. Research from Fields in Trust reveals that in the UK 5.6 million people do not live with 10 minutes walking access to a green space. 1 in 3 children under 9s do not have access to a playground near their home. Only 6% of green spaces are legally protected. 

To maintain access to green spaces at current levels for our growing population, would mean creating 4000 new parks by 2033. 

https://fieldsintrust.org/insights/green-space-index

Counting on … 86

7th September 

A different aspect of resilience is maintaining good mental health. 

I know I can get over stressed by worrying about the various existential crises that we face – climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, injustice etc – and I can get into a frame of mind that says that anything I do will not be enough, that anything I do will not make a difference, and I can’t work out what to do. It becomes overwhelming and I can’t escape. 

But what do I know is that there are some things that I can do that will unwind the anxiety. One is  exercise and I do this regularly with a set pattern such that on Tuesdays for example, I will book a swim for 7.30am, then use the gym and then have breakfast in the cafe. The other is to simply go out and pay attention to the natural world – often this is sitting by the Thames, watching the river, the wildlife, the changing tides and seasons, and even just watching the people who are also enjoying the river. 

You could say that I count on nature to keep me sane!

The Feast of Creation in Christ

6th September 2026

Reflection with readings below

Feasts are times for celebration and rejoicing. Therefore the Feast of Creation in Christ should be a day for celebrating the integral relationship between creation and Christ, rejoicing in all the wonder and bounty of which we are beneficiaries.

The Feast of Creation in Christ marks the beginning of the season of Creation which ends 4th October with the feast of St Francis. Creation-tide is, I think, a time to practice a generous and respectful approach to creation. It is to be mindful that it is here in creation that we can encounter God on a daily basis. It is also a time to remember that we are part of and not above creation; that we are partners with all that lives as members of a an intricate set of ecosystems. It is by remembering our co-dependency that we will learn to live within the Earth’s planetary boundaries and in so doing, fulfil our vocation to tend and cherish the Earth.

The reading from Isaiah is rightly full of praise and joy. Yet note, it is not humans who are doing the celebrating but the landscape and the vegetation. Throughout the Bible there are many other examples of non-human beings praising and worshipping God. When we praise and worship God, we do so not alone but in union with the rest of creation. Deborah Colvin, who led last Wednesday’s Green Christian talk on living waters, encouraged us to simply listen to the sounds from creation and in silence join our prayers with them. It is so easy for us to slip into attitudes that ignore creation. Spending time in nature whether that be sitting in a garden, walking under trees, standing by a river, staring up at the clouds, and simply paying attention to what is around us, is a way of joining in the worship of God. Such attentiveness will likely also make us aware of where and how we are mistreating creation and causing God to grieve.

These sentiments are re-echoed in today’s psalm.

Both New Testament readings explore the relationship between Jesus and creation. Here we hear that Jesus being both fully God and a distinct facet of God, was integrally part of the totality of the divine will that created all that exists. Here we also hear that Jesus in becoming fully human, has become the head of the body – the community – of the people of God – also known as the Church. And is the first born raised from the dead, and the first to lead us by the way of the cross, unfolding for us the gift of salvation.

We often talk of being one in Christ when talking about baptism, or belonging to church, or taking communion. I don’t think we so often say this when we’re gardening, feeding the cat, walking in the park etc. Yet if “all things have been created through him and for him … and in him all things hold together” then all things are ‘in Christ’. This should once again reinforce for us the need to see ourselves as one with the rest of creation and not superior to any part thereof, to be willing to join with the rest of creation in worshipping God, and being eager to care for creation as both our love of neighbour and as our love of God.

Realising a new our relationship with creation and therefore with God through Christ is a time for celebration and feasting!

Isaiah 55.12−end

You will go out in joy

    and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

    will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

    will clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper,

    and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord’s renown,

    for an everlasting sign,

    that will endure forever.”

Psalm 96

Sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvellous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.

Splendour and majesty are before him;
    strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.

Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
    The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let the sea resound, and all that is in it.

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
    let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
    he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Colossians 1.15−20

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

John 1.1−14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Green Tau: the bigger picture 

16th July 2026

One of the things I like about the creation story in Genesis 2 is the way it draws in so many different strands. At the centre – or maybe it’s at the perimeter on the edge of the curve – is God. God creates the Earth (and heaven). But the Earth needs water to produce vegetation. So God provides water – not just an initial splash but a stream of water that encompasses the whole Earth – and we now understand how the water cycle keeps that life-giving water flowing. God uses the stuff of Earth to form the first human, and plants together the human and a garden. The former is to serve and watch over the latter; the latter to provide all manner of seeds and fruit for the former. God then uses more of the stuff of Earth to create a multitude of other beings to work alongside the human, and another  human as a partner. 

This is a story that tells of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all that makes up creation. As the story then unfolds, we see how by separating the different strands, the humans cause the degradation of what has been created. Eve separates what she knows to be God’s will from her consideration of the attractiveness of the fruit. She separates the word of the snake from the the word of God. Both Eve and Adam separate their undertaking to God from their action in eating the fruit. And when called to account both try and separate their responsibility for from the outcome of their actions. 

When we separate the interconnectedness of nature (and our own connectedness within that) and rather view things in separate silos, we are bound to make mistakes. 

When we separate maximising what we can harvest from the land from the need to care for the soil including all its multiple organisms, we end up depleting the fertility of the soil and destroying our means of growing food. 

When we separate the intricacies of the water system from the use of the land, and seek to sap and constrain the former to increase our use of the latter, we end up exacerbating the impacts of flood and droughts to our detriment. 

When we separate bugs and weeds from the  menu of biodiversity, killing off the latter with pesticides and herbicides, we diminish the robustness of the ecosystem in which plants grow. 

When we separate what we choose to eat – beef and dairy by the bucket load, strawberries in January and asparagus in August – from the limitations of the natural environment, we diminish the robustness of the environment which sustains our food supply. And invariably the ones who go hungry are those who are poor and powerless.

Even when we try and address these problems, we typically do so with a blinkered approach. We don’t see the interconnectedness. 

Cutting down tropical forests to grow animal fodder for cattle in Europe may provide cheaper meat in the UK but reduces the water levels of the River Amazon, increases local temperatures and releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere further driving temperatures upwards, accelerating climate change and exposing people both in the tropics and in Europe to ever more extreme weather events. 

Draining peatlands, clearing trees and hedgerows, and straightening rivers may expand arable fields, but when rains come the water will first quickly flood and then quickly disappear, damaging crops first with too much and then with too little water. And not only crops. Households too will face winter flooding and summer water shortages.

Only when we see and acknowledge the interconnectedness and the interdependency of the creation and respond attentively, will we reverse the ecological disaster that has been years in the making. Only then will we understand the intricacies and depth of our part in serving and watching over the garden in which, for our wellbeing, we have been planted.  

This week we have seen the Church of England – its governing synod and its Commissioners – fail to understand what is at stake if we do not care for our land holistically rather than seeing it as just a source of income.

This week we have seen the Government issues its own response to the loss of biodiversity, and failing to embrace the needs of the farmer for income, the land for good care, the people for food security, and the Government’s own role in leadership.

This week we continue to see whole swathes of people not having the information that informs about what makes a healthy diet,  nor having the necessary income for and access to healthy food, nor having knowledge, or hands-on experience, of how the natural and the farming worlds work.

Can we be part of a move to tell and explore the bigger picture?

Prayers for the ecosystems of North America

28th March 2026

Happy are those  who do not follow the advice of the wicked. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season,  their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. Ps 1:1a,3

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives: 

May we live together in peace.

A Reading Proverbs 22:16-18

Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss. The words of the wise: Incline your ear and hear my words, and apply your mind to my teaching; for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you  if all of them are ready on your lips.

Each week during Lent I am  focusing on a different continent; this week North America

North America extends from the tiny Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the Isthmus of Panama in the south. The continent includes the enormous island of Greenland in the northeast and the small island countries and territories that dot the Caribbean Sea and western North Atlantic Ocean. In the far north, the continent stretches halfway around the world, from Greenland to the Aleutians. But at Panama’s narrowest part, the continent is just 50 km across. North America can be divided into five physical regions: the mountainous west, the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the varied eastern region, and the Caribbean. Mexico and Central America’s western coast are connected to the mountainous west, while its lowlands and coastal plains extend into the eastern region. Within these regions are all the major types of biomes in the world. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/north-america-physical-geography/

Glory to God 

Creator of successions of mountains ranges:

We praise you for the awe and wonder of these regions, 

their reminder that we are but humans.

We marvel at the power of water to carve out canyons 

and the power of water to generate energy.

Glory to God

Creator of forests and plains:

We praise you for the richness of their biodiversity, for tall prairie grasses and even taller trees; 

for the smallest grasshoppers to the mighty bison, 

for the whistling marmots and black bears that huff and grunt.

Glory to God

Creator of rivers, lakes and wetlands:

We praise you for the Great Lakes and the fresh water they contain, 

for the Mississippi River and the fertile soil it nurtures, 

and for the wetlands of the Everglades, the 360 plus species of bird  

and the plump grandeur of the manatees.

Glory to God, 

Creator of tundra and ice: 

We praise you for the ingenuity of life that adapts to the extremes of climate and geography.

We marvel at the diversity of life – lichens and moss, polar bears and caribou, 

and the many migrating birds such as the Arctic tern.

Merciful God,

Creator of human kind, 

Forgive our greed that has mined land and sea for fossil fuels, jeopardising our future.

Forgive our greed that industrialises farming, destroying soils and draining lakes. 

Forgive our greed that turns animals into commodities and disregards their sentient nature. 

Forgive our greed for consumer goods that strips the earth’s reserves.

Merciful God,

Creator of our brothers and sisters:

Forgive the casualness with which we let the rich grow richer 

and the poor poorer.

Forgive the casualness with which we let the rich break the laws 

and yet still penalise the poor.

Forgive the carelessness with which we discard what we buy 

ignoring the meagre pay of those who labour. 

Guiding God,

Source  of all wisdom, 

Transform our hearts and minds, turn the direction of our hands and feet 

so that with alacrity and commitment we will reform our lives 

and live only in harmony with your creation. 

Amen.

The Grace

Counting on 2026 …. Day 24

18th February 

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday when in the past people confessed their sins and were shriven so that they could start Lent free of the burden of guilt. 

If in observing Lent, we are following the example of Jesus who prepared for his mission in sharing the gospel by spending 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness, what can the next 7 weeks offer us?

In the wilderness Jesus was totally reliant for his survival on what God could give him and what the wilderness – ie nature – could give him. Through this experience he would have been very close relationship with both God and nature. So is that, I wonder, what we should be aiming for during Lent? A chance to deepen our understanding of, relationship with and reliance on, God and nature?

Remembrance for Lost Species

This Sunday, 30th November, is Remembrance Day for Lost Species. For some species in the UK it is now too late, but for others there is perhaps still time to safeguard their existence for future generations – provided we take action now. 

The Greater mouse-eared bat; the Kentish plover; the large chequered skipper; the short-haired bumblebee; the blue bugle – these have all in recent years become extinct or near extinct in the UK

Amongst the woods and forests, 

between oaks and cedars, 

God’s name is holy.

In the seas and oceans, 

with whales and sea urchins, 

God’s name is holy.

Across the moors and meadows, 

with curlews and plovers, 

God’s name is holy.

By riverbanks and streams, 

following eels and kingfishers, 

God’s name is holy .

High up on mountain peaks and glaciers, 

sheltering in cwms and gullies, 

God’s name is holy .

Gathered in barns and hives, 

buzzing with bees and bats, 

God’s name is holy .

Hidden under stones and snuck into crevices, 

lying low with lizards and spiders, 

God’s name is holy .

In all corners of the world 

and where ever life exists, 

God’s name is holy!

Creator God, we come from, and we dwell in, your beautiful, magnificent world. We share it with the myriad of creatures and plants that praise you by being what you created them to be. By our lack of care, our lack of love, we are wiping out pieces of your handiwork, silencing their praise. 

We are sorry.

Forgive us. 

Give us now what we need to safeguard the beauty and diversity of your world. Let us not be thwarted by the immensity of the challenge, for your power working within us can do more than we can imagine. May the love, unearthed by the sadness we feel for that which is lost, burn in our hearts, and ignite in us the courage to stand up against all that threatens what remains.

Through Jesus Christ, in whom and for whom all things were created. 

Amen.

This prayer comes from the Green Christian website – where you can also find other resources and a  link to their workshop ‘Remembering Lost Species’ on 7th December. 

Remembrance Day for Lost Species

Now is the sky blue!

Now is it framed 

by a fretwork of branches 

where leaves still linger –

some as big as dinner plates 

some as small as butterflies. 

Jackdaws riddle the earth 

harvesting riches that lay below.

And squirrels skip and skitter 

their autumn dance.

All is now, and now, and now!

But tomorrow, next week, next year? 

Merciful God will they still be there?

Will our apathy, 

our slowness to act, 

our aversion to change 

allowed all this 

to be threatened, 

diminished, and 

evicted from life?

Have mercy.

But not just mercy –

rather prod us, prompt us, 

push us into action.

Renew our hearts and minds,

reverse our expectations

so that we change the future 

and once more 

be restorers of creation.

In all creation God’s name is holy

31st  August  2025

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Luke 12:27

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation: 

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives: 

May we live together in peace.

A reading from Job 12:7-9

But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?

A response:

Amongst the woods and forests,

between oaks and cedars,

God’s name is holy.

In the seas and oceans,

with whales and sea urchins,

God’s name is holy.

Across the moors and meadows,

with curlews and plovers,

God’s name is holy.

By riverbanks and streams,

following eels and kingfishers,

God’s name is holy.

High up on mountain peaks and glaciers,

sheltering in cwms and gullies,

God’s name is holy.

Gathered in barns and hives,

buzzing with bees and bats,

God’s name is holy.

Hidden under stones and snuck into crevices,

lying low with lizards and spiders,

God’s name is holy.

In all corners of the world

and where ever life exists,

God’s name is holy!

Amen.

Living God, 

when we neglect to see the beauty around us, 

open our eyes.

When we neglect to hear the music around us, 

open our ears.

When we neglect to feel your presence, 

awaken our senses.

When we neglect to receive your love, 

open our hearts.

Living God, 

re-inspire us with your Spirit, 

so that in us too your name is holy.

Amen. 

Counting on … day 108

14th July 2025

The UK has committed to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30by30), to support the global 30by30 target agreed at the UN Biodiversity Summit (COP15) in 2022. (1) Currently just over 14% of land in England meets this target so achieving this goal will require significant change and input from landowners and government. 

Gardens can make a small contribution. Rewilding part of a garden is not to waste one’s garden but to create a space where wildlife – be that insects, beetles, birds etc or wild plants (often discarded for being weeds) can thrive. Collectively wild spaces in gardens can provide green corridors for wild life. 

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criteria-for-30by30-on-land-in-england/30by30-on-land-in-england-confirmed-criteria-and-next-steps

Further information

https://greentau.org/2022/04/04/the-green-tau-issue-39/ (Since writing this blog, the green proportion of Greater London is now almost 50%)

31 Days Wild: 5th May 2025

What do I want to achieve over these 31 days? A bit more understanding about the natural world, about what the word ‘wild’ might mean, a greater aptitude to pay attention to the natural world around me – looking, hearing, smelling, feeling.

There is a little piece of woodland that separates a field from a local park. Its certainly not wild or natural in the sense that the trees were planted by a previous generation, but it does provide a habitat for a large number of wild birds – and I’m guessing other wild things such  as bugs and insects etc. I often pause here and use my Merlin app which identifies the different birds that are singing in the locality – as many as 14 different species on some occasions. I hope that by doing this regulalry I will learn to identify more birds by their songs. Today I could hear on one side of me a chiff chaff and on the other side another chiff chaff replying – their songs were similar but each had their own pitch.